Arts & Entertainment

Coachella Day 3: Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg prepare to headline

Dr. Dre (right) and Snoop Dogg (left) perform on Broadway in Times Square, New York City as part of MTV's Spankin New Music Week, Nov. 4, 1999.
Scott Gries/Getty Images

KPCC wire services|April 15, 2012

The music at Day Three of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival will be all over the map, with performances by roots rappers Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg closing Week One of the expanded concert series.

Dr. Dre, who shot to fame as a member of the seminal Compton rap band NWA, will join his longtime buddy Snoop Dogg to close the show. They may have a surprise guest or two join them before their show, set to start at 10:35 p.m. on the Main Stage, wraps up.

The skies should be mostly clear and temperatures in the upper 60s and low 70s before noon. The afternoon high should top out at 78 degrees, and the breeze will be out of the west at 15-20 mph, according to the National Weather Service. Typically, temperatures are in the 90s.

For the first time since the annual festival was established in 2001, all the same artists will perform again next weekend, roughly in the same order.

The English experimental rock band Radiohead closed last night's show, opening with "Bloom" and performing nearly 20 songs before closing with "Paranoid Android." The Black Keys, an American blues-rock band out of Ohio, was the headline act on the Main Stage Friday night.

The fashion-setting concert series put on by Goldenvoice, an AEG Entertainment subsidiary — tickets at $285 each sold out weeks ago — roughly doubles Indio's population, and city fathers are hoping stretching the festival over two weekend will pump up the regional economy.

The city will get $500,000 from a $2.33 charge on every ticket sold at Coachella and the April 27-29 Stagecoach country music festival. The city also is expecting $270,000 from a 10 percent transient occupancy tax on tents, teepee rentals and RV spots.

The concert itself provides some 5,000 temporary jobs.

Day Two arrests totaled 60, Indio police spokesman Ben Guitron said. He said 9 out of 10 were for public drunkenness or drinking outside designated beer gardens. The rest of the arrests were for drug possession or being under the influence of drugs.

On Friday, police made 39 arrests. But Guitron said Indio's beefed-up police force has had any big problems with the crowd, which swells to about 80,000 at times.

DJ and rapper Alf Alpha, a Palm desert native who made his Coachella debut last year, will be one of the first acts taking the stage after the gates at the Empire Polo Club open at 11 a.m. He's set to perform in the Gobi Tent at 11:15 a.m.

Ojai-based folk-rocker Lissie, named the best new artist of 2010 by Paste magazine, is set to play the Outdoor Stage at 12:50 p.m. The Rock Island, Ill., singer-songwriter, also was featured on several of Snow Patrol's tracks on the band's 2011 album "Fallen Empires."

Santigold takes the Main Stage at 3:25 p.m. The Philadelphia-born singer- songwriter, real name Santi White, first gained attention fronting the punk band Stiffled. Her style has been compared to that of M.I.A. The Hives, a five-member Swedish "garage" band known for matching black-and-white outfits, are set to play the Main Stage at 6:05 p.m., and Scottish electro-pop singer-songwriter Calvin Harris will play the Sahara Tent at 8:25 p.m.

Road closures include Avenue 50 between Jackson and Madison streets, Avenue 49 between Monroe and Madison and Madison between avenues 49 and 50 through Sunday, and again next weekend. Delays were expected on Washington, Jefferson, and Monroe streets and Avenues 50 and 52 on festival days.